While advertising has become one of the predominant financial commercial engines behind many internet endeavors, professionals are finding that identifying new location suitable for placing messages and the decision where to place the commercial message is becoming increasingly significant. Currently there are several known schemes for placing commercial messages to the users. According to the first, the commercial message is embedded into the web pages and the users are exposed to the commercial messages when they enter the web page. The content of the message can be dynamically selected when the page is requested and tailored to specific needs.
According to a second scheme the commercial message is presented to users in a pop-up window. The window appears on top of all other windows while the user is working. In such cases users are required to close the pop-up window or reselect the previous window in order to continue working.
A third scheme includes a method for identifying spaces appropriate for displaying commercial messages inside an internet browser window. Upon identifying such a location the web page is modified and the advertisement appears in the previously empty area. This technology is not commonly used since it offers little advantages over placing the advertisement in predestined location as described above.
According to an additional scheme advertisements are placed in the windows of specific application programs specially coded to allow this option. In such cases the advertisements are usually placed in locations which do not interfere with the interface of the application. This option can be implemented as part of this specific application program or as an external application which communicates with this specific program. However, the location of the advertisement is limited to the windows of this specific application program.
United States Patent Application No. 20040015608 discloses a method and system for dynamically incorporating advertising content into multimedia environments. The system provides a minimally intrusive mechanism that allows a content provider such as an advertiser to dynamically incorporate content, such as advertisements, into a video game or other target communication device or multimedia presentation. The advertising is always inside the specifically handled application or browser window.
United States Patent Application No. 20030128234 discloses a system and method which enable utilizing document white space to persistently display designated content. The invention enables a web browser or viewer program to identify the white space, such as the background space of a document, and to utilize the identified white space for displaying content that has been designated as content that is to be persistently displayed regardless of user actions. The advertising is always inside the specifically handled application or browser window. Only a single program or browser window, usually based upon “Document Object Model interface”, is handled. The program will even rearrange its displayed information in order to leave more empty space for advertisements.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,039,872 discloses method and system of creating floating windows for displaying sponsor information, messages or programs in non-obtrusive areas of the graphic user interface of a software application. This patent displays advertisements over a fixed area of the application. Such areas can be the menus or window borders. United States Patent Application No. 20070033269 discloses a computer method and apparatus using embedded message window for displaying messages in a functional bar. Message windows are embedded in a functional bar, such as the toolbar, status bar, address bar and task bar. The messages displayed in the windows are based on searches conducted by the user. The software program in which the windows are embedded may be a browser or non-browser application.
United States Patent Application No. 20060026628 discloses a method and apparatus for inserting additional content into video. The method and apparatus inserts virtual advertisements or other virtual contents into a sequence of frames of a video presentation by performing real-time content-based video frame processing to identify suitable (non-intrusive) locations in the video for implantation. The advertising is always inside the specifically handled application or browser window.
United States Patent Application No. 20060031415 discloses a method for controlling content in an application program. The method includes determining whether monitored content corresponds to a predetermined advertisement and replacing it with another predetermined advertisement based on the user input. The advertising is always inside the specifically handled application or browser window.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,351 discloses systems and methods of inserting advertisements into an information retrieval system display. These are systems and methods for selecting and inserting advertisements in an information document displayed to a user, wherein the selection is based at least in part on television programming viewed by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,185 discloses a method and apparatus for modifying an information page transmitted in a communications network. Information page data, such as hypertext markup language data, is obtained for the requested information page. Additional data, such as an advertisement, is selected and the information page data is modified to include the additional data based on attributes of the requested information page. The modified information page data is then sent to the client computer for display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,943 is a method and system for controlling a complementary user interface on a display surface. This patent combines a hardware and software solution that generates an alternate display. This new display is used for advertisement placement.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,934,743 discloses a method and system for displaying advertisements over the unused area of a Web browser. A process is linked to the web browser program and monitors the web page contents and user activity. When it identifies areas that are not used inside the web browser display area, an advertisement is displayed there. This patent is limited to areas inside a web browser, makes use of the fact that its easy to know that changes occur in a web page and offer little advantage over embedding the ads in pre-designated locations.
US Patent Application No. 2004239703 discloses a method and system for creating additional advertising space by sensing the position of an element on a web page or other client viewer. When a user interacts with that element, the system positions the appearance of additional web page elements not limited by the boundary of the initial element.
US Patent Application No. 2003104840 discloses a system and a method for displaying an advertisement so as to limit intrusiveness for a user by not interfering with the utilization of the communications device by the user. The system and method initiate a display of the advertisement message on the display when normal utilization of the electronic device will not be compromised. This method is primarily concerned with the timing of when to display the message.
International Patent Application No. WO/0073920 discloses a system and a method which use the substrate areas of a software application for displaying sponsor messages/information, contained in one or more floating windows. The information hiding behind the floating windows can be accessed in a non-intrusive manner in one of the several automatic cursor-responsive ways described in the embodiment. Additionally, such cursor-responsive floating windows are not restricted to the substrate areas and can be located in the document area for displaying information in layers. This patent application only searches a given application window for a suitable location for placing the message.
There is therefore a need for a solution which would enable placing commercial messages in a manner which would not interfere with the workflow of the user, taking into account the full display screen of the user. Such a solution would need to analyze the content of the entire user display and the activity of the user in real-time and would select the location of such messages accordingly. Thus, previously unused space can be detected and utilized. This solution would also later remove the message if and when it is about to interfere with said workflow.